I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

For years we have photographed ice cream.  Lately, we have been shooting a lot of both stills and video ice cream projects.  Both fake and real ice cream photography have their challenges but by far some of the hardest photography you will ever do is real ice cream.

The obvious is that real ice cream melts.  But what may not be so obvious are all the other factors that effect real ice cream shots.  Here are just a few:

Studio humidity
Studio temperature
Freezer temperature
Ice cream temperature to get the right barking on the scoop
Types of nuggets, nuts, chocolate ribbons, carmel ribbons, etc that is in the ice cream.
Temperature of the ice cream bar coating
Fat content of the ice cream
etc., etc., etc.

Although ice cream photography isn't brain surgery, it's one of the closest think you'll come to it as a photographer.

Stills from a recent video shoot

Stills from a recent video shoot

Stills from a recent video shoot of a coke float on a spinning turn table

doing a final check of the glass and product

what you don't see is a clear tube inside the glass holding up the ice cream 

using my 10x glasses to make sure the chocolate coating is just right 

orange cream popcicle

A basket of dry ice hovering over the set to keep the ice cream from melting

lots of ice cream scoops

food stylist perfectly positioning ice cream in the bowl 

lighting test

Lot's of ice cream sandwich options 

dueling 10x glasses

Adding sauce and nuggets to the scoop

food stylist having fun

food stylist holding fake ice cream

the real thing

Thanks, Tiffany for all the great behind the scenes photos.